Gaza. Open the doors!

Appeal organized by "PeaceLines.org"

— APPEAL —

Israel has maintained its blockade on Gaza for the past two years.

Yet another bloody clash at the Israel-Gaza border, on June 8 2009, reminds us just how explosive the situation remains. Four dead and twelve injured on the Palestinian side, with no losses for the Israelis. In the Gaza Strip, only thirty to forty products from a list of four thousand previously authorised by Israel (before the blockade imposed in June 2007) are tolerated today, and 1.5 million people are trapped inside Gaza’s borders, exposed to total arbitrariness.

Books, records, clothing, fabric, shoes, needles, electric bulbs, candles, matches, musical instruments, sheets, blankets, mattresses, cups, glasses…are all forbidden and have to be transported via fragile tunnels from Egypt which are the targets of repeated bombings. In 2008, more than fifty people died in tunnels collapsing. None of the materials needed to rebuild them (cement, doors, glass, windows, etc.) are authorised either, following the devastating attacks of December 2008-January 2009. Tea, coffee and semolina remain banned items (see Amira Hass’ study: “Israel bans books, music and clothes from entering Gaza”, Haaretz, May 17 2009).

Sixty Nobel Laureates, of whom 10 received the Nobel Peace Prize, two hundred European Parliament Members (2004-2009) and other important people are working with the NGO Peace Lines as part of their Open the doors! campaign for a permanent end to the Gaza blockade and the release of prisoners on humanitarian and legal grounds.

We ask all political leaders and members of the new European Parliament to do everything they can to ensure these releases – including that of Corporal Gilad Shalit and the former Education Minister Al Shaer, re-arrested on March 19 in conditions which violate international law. Europe and the Union for the Mediterranean cannot continue to allow such deprivation and suffocation to take place on their doorstep.

“Open the doors! Israel must end its blockade on Gaza, stop the killing and allow Gaza to open up to the world so as to guarantee the possibility of a viable economy. Palestinians must cease all rocket attacks on Israel and the Israeli people.

Human beings are not bargaining chips. Consequently: The Palestinians must free Corporal Gilad Shalit, whom they have held prisoner for almost three years. The Israelis, who hold more ten thousand people in their prisons, must free a significant number of female, elderly and infirm prisoners who have served long sentences, as well as prisoners held under administrative detention, including all the elected members of the Palestinian legislature.”